It’s that time of the year again. Results for the bar exam are yet again in for everyone.
You’ve endured the onslaught of “aww… you got this” and “I’m sure you passed!” for weeks and months.
Anxiety, excitement, uncertainty squirting into your heart every time you thought of the moment of truth. Waiting is often the hardest thing. Uncertainty is being locked in a padded room alone with delusions of hopes and worries.
Well, the insanity of the wait is over. And the results were humbling.
Have you reached success in other parts of your life? School, relationships, a new hobby, an extracurricular your mom forced you to do in middle school?
Why not the bar?
As you try to push through this final stretch, you might have some doubts, frustrations, and a general sense of uncertainty. You can’t wait to abandon the bar like a New Year’s resolution and just be done with it!
“That’s normal. I can’t help it.”
The future is full of hope, however, because you don’t need to be extraordinary to pass the bar (although I’ll try to get you there). You can be “normal” and still become an attorney. It’s just a matter of when.
But what you can’t do is self-sabotage. You can help it if you choose to.
Here are three things you should stop telling yourself (one week before the bar exam, two weeks before, anytime you’re doubting yourself during preparation):
She was the type of person to schedule her showers by the minute because of her absurd rotation schedule in med school. Yet she had taken three hours out of her life to meet me again for a second date.
I wanted to hold her hand so bad. A perfect pretext to see how she felt about me… that I ruined because I lacked three seconds of courage.
I was interviewed in an episode of the Bar Study Motivation Podcast.
Give it a listen as you wind down for the day. I think you’ll find at least one good nugget you can use for your bar preparation. Some convenient timestamps:
Happy new year! It’s that time again when everyone suddenly forgets the correct year.
By the way, I don’t believe your “resolutions.” Look at your friends saying, “Hey, I’m SERIOUS about my New Year’s resolutions. THIS time it’s for real.”
Sure buddy. If they really wanted to do something, they would have started or done it already.
I won’t let you simply declare your resolve and call it a day. Anyone can have good intentions. Anyone can be interested. Prove that resolve by actually showing me results.
Let your results speak for themselves.
Before you start shouting at the wrong person (aka me), let me ask you this: How are those resolutions from 12 months ago going?
Thought so. Vague wishes are unsustainable for most people, myself included. Estimates put the “failure” rate of resolutions around 75-92%. But I don’t want you to be just another ordinary citizen.
Just smile and nod at people who want you to be mediocre
No, I want your next year to be AMAZING. I want you to get everything you want, whether it’s to…
Pass the bar and leave it behind you forever
Get your dream job, start that career, make everyone proud, and trick them into thinking that everything in your life falls into place effortlessly
Live a normal life like the rest of your friends
Let’s do it. How can we mark the new year (and every year after that) with extraordinary results? My two cents:
